Ordering knowledge by methodical doubt: Francis Bacon's constructive scepticism

Methodical doubt is usually associated with Descartes. However, it is with Francis Bacon that its function and scope are first recognized – as a preliminary stage in the attainment of knowledge, and as an epistemological tool (a rule) for achieving true knowledge. In this paper, I follow the various steps of construction and use of Baconian doubt as it appears in the first book of the New Organon. I will argue that Bacon - in distancing himself from traditional scepticism – will come to conceive methodical doubt not only as a procedure for renovating knowledge, but more specifically as a prescriptive condition for identifying what 'mind' is required to pursue the aim of renovating knowledge.